The Central Bank of the Bahamas published its Monthly Economic and Financial Developments report for October 2025, reporting that the domestic economy maintained a moderated pace of growth year on year as tourism remained healthy but stopover activity tapered. Banking sector liquidity contracted despite a fall in domestic credit, while external reserves rose by BSD 123.0m to BSD 2,929.8m on net foreign currency inflows. Tourism indicators showed total outbound air departures edging up 0.1% to 91,022, with non-US international departures up 2.8% to 16,159 and US departures down 0.4% to 74,863; year to date, total outbound traffic fell 2.4% to 1.3 million. In the monetary sector, excess reserves decreased by BSD 90.0m and excess liquid assets by BSD 76.6m; total Bahamian-dollar credit fell by BSD 179.6m, driven by a BSD 223.0m drop in net claims on central government, while private sector credit increased by BSD 43.1m. The reserve build partly reflected net proceeds from the Government’s external borrowing, with the Central Bank’s net foreign currency purchase from the public sector rising to BSD 165.7m; foreign currency sales for current account transactions increased by BSD 2.8m to BSD 518.0m. Total Bahamian-dollar deposits contracted by BSD 39.2m, the weighted average loan rate rose 12 basis points to 11.20%, and the average deposit rate fell 11 basis points to 0.47%; private sector arrears increased to BSD 454.9m while non-performing loans fell to BSD 307.7m. The Bank said it will release the Monthly Economic and Financial Developments report on the Monday following each monthly Monetary Policy Committee meeting, noting that the monthly estimates use financial institutions’ daily foreign exchange reports and weekly balance sheets and may differ from figures in its quarterly reports. The next release is scheduled for 29 December 2025.

Original source View in tracker